State and local power officials say California is prepared for the hot summer months ahead with a reserve power margin of 24 percent.

They acknowledged, however, that extreme weather and fire conditions could whittle that margin down to 13 percent.

That assessment was presented Friday as officials gathered at the California Independent System Operator’s control center in Alhambra to provide an update on the state’s summer power supply.

On hand were Steve Berberich, president and CEO of California ISO; Ron Nichols, senior vice president of regulatory affairs for Southern California Edison; Robert B. Weisenmiller, chairman of the California Energy Commission; and Michael R. Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission.

“We do a summer assessment every year and this year we have an adequate supply,” said Berberich, whose agency oversees the state’s massive power grid. “Overall, we expect to be in pretty good shape.”

California has 3,900 additional megawatts of power generation available for the summer and 53,950 megawatts available for times of peak usage.

Berberich said Southern California’s grid conditions are “cautiously stable,” but added that California’s last two summers have been relatively mild.

Energy conservation and flex alerts, he said, will play a big role in ensuring that California’s power needs don’t outstrip the available supply of electricity.

California ISO issues flex alerts during peak times when current system conditions and forecasted energy demands indicate immediate conservation is needed. When an alert is issued, residents are asked to immediately conserve electricity and to shift the use of power-draining appliances — such as washers and dryers — to off-peak hours.

Fires are another wild card that could disrupt the state’s power supply.

Weisenmiller noted that California firefighters have already battled 2,118 wildfires across the state this year — blazes that have burned more than 17,000 acres.

Wildfires always have the potential to damage power lines, particularly in remote areas.

Water also figures into the mix.

“Eighteen to 20 percent of our power needs involve moving water around the state,” he said. “We are in an historic drought and this is our third year. There are a lot more people in California now, so we have to use water more efficiently.”

Nichols said Edison has secured nearly 1,800 megawatts of contracted power over the past couple of years to backfill power that has been lost as a result of the closure of Edison’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.

“We also changed out the way our system is configured at two Orange County substations,” he said. “They went from two lines to four lines, so if an outage occurs, fewer customers will be affected.”

Edison also has a summer discount plan that’s aimed at conserving power during times of peak usage.

When a customer signs up, Edison installs a remote-controlled device on their air conditioning unit. On days when energy conservation is needed, the utility can temporarily turn off their air conditioner to reduce stress on the power grid.

Edison said 300,000 customers — both residential and commercial — are enrolled in the program.

That can take about 180 megawatts of power usage offline during peak times, Nichols said.

Bill Patzert, a climatologist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, said an extended heat wave coupled with wildfires and heavy Santa Ana winds could create real problems for California this summer.

“These events are hard to predict, but a lot of things are stacking up against the power grid,” he said. “We generally think of the fire season as being in October and November before the rains come. But we’ve already had a number of fires here in California so the seasonality has gone out of it. The fire season is all year now.”

Kevin Smith handles business news and editing for the Southern California News Group, which includes 11 newspapers, websites and social media channels. He covers everything from employment, technology and housing to retail, corporate mergers and business-based apps. Kevin often writes stories that highlight the local impact of trends occurring nationwide. And the focus is always to shed light on why those issues matter to readers in Southern California.

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